The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) announced on Friday that former ANC MP Makhosi Khoza would join it as an executive director and head of its local government programme.

Outa chief executive Wayne Duvenage announced the new executive board appointment and its local government strategy at a briefing in Johannesburg.

“She is bold and courageous,” said Duvenage.

Khoza, who resigned from the ANC last year and formed her own political party, the African Democratic Change, recently announced that she was retiring from politics.

Khoza will start her new job at Outa on June 1.

“It is time for one to consolidate and embark on a journey that began in 1996,” she said at the briefing.

Khoza added that people would agree with her that local government was tragically ignored.

“It should be a sphere where the country invests its best brains. It is gratifying that Outa has taken a decision to focus on this sphere of governance. I hope to make a maximum impact on this sphere of governance.”

She said the local government sphere was riddled with corruption and maladministration.

“It is all these factors and issues that have led one to join Outa. It is our duty to do something about it in a constructive way. Government needs to be assisted by pointing out these issues.”

She said she was glad that there was an organisation such as Outa that aimed to achieve a better quality of life for all South Africans.

“When our taxes are misused - our quality of life suffers. We should take responsibility to hold municipalities accountable.”

She said she hoped that tax abuse would end.

“I have the honour and publicly announce that I am no longer a politician and I am now [part of] civil society. I do not think that there is an organisation that matches what Outa has done. I want to thank the members of the board for believing in me and that I can add value. It is very difficult to trust politicians these days.”

Duvenage said that the organisation was born in 2012 in a bid to challenge the government’s e-tolling system. In 2016 expanded its mandate to challenge corruption.

“It goes without saying that corruption is rife in local governmant and there is a growing lack of accountability.”

He said Outa had been approached by residents in several municipalities to tackle corruption there.

“We will apply pressure on Cogta [Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs] to apply pressure and [exercise] due diligence.”

Duvenage said Outa had identified 50 municipalities that were going to be investigated.

The announcement comes hot on the heels of questions around Outa’s own internal governance.

Duvenage recently hit back at former executives who have accused him of mismanagement and of bypassing the board.

Duvenage was also reported to have allocated himself a salary of R160 000 a month without the board’s approval, among other claims.

He told News24 at the time, one of OUTA’s directors, who was allegedly charged with serious misconduct, was dismissed from the organisation eight months ago.

“Now he has an axe to grind and has gone and rounded up former directors who resigned to make me look like a bad CEO. They are smearing me to appear as a dictator. I am not a dictator.”— News 24